Oral Sex linked to higher risk of neck and throat cancer

Research published in the Annals of Oncology has showed that people who have 5 or more oral sex partners in their lifetime have the highest rates of oropharyngeal cancer, especially if they smoke.

Using data from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (with 13,089 people aged 20-69 participating), the lowest risk group had no oral sex partners Men were more at risk than women, with smoking worsening the risk. Over 100 different types of HPV were implicated. HPV 16 and HPV 18 are most linked to cervical cancer, HPV16 is most linked to oropharyngeal cancer.

Surprisingly, the non-oral sex, no smoking group still had 1.5 per cent of men, and 0.5 per cent of women developing an infection. There is no screening test for throat and neck cancer.

Dr Amber D’Souza at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the lead author on the study would like to develop such a test.

Chris Woollams, former Oxford University Biochemist and Founder of CANCERactive said, “There have been a number of studies recently in Cancer Watch showing how you might stop an HPV infection causing cancer (like taking Graviola and Ellagic acid, or curcumin), even when you have cancer how artemisinin might help kill off the virus.”